Weather or not these are clinically relevant when most veterinarians are still seeing heartworm, hookworm, whipworm, tapeworm, lyme, and flea infections on a regular basis... well, thats yet to be seen.

The fact of the matter is there are no good studies out there showing proof one way or the other. I'm hoping we'll see some good information in the next year.

I think asking your veterinarian to speak to a Nature's Variety representative would be a much more worthwhile way to go. Their foods are now AAFCO tested, as well as tested for bacterial/parasite contamination prior to sale. If your vet is vehemently apposed, then feeding Nature's Variety should at least put any reasonable concerns to rest.

Misskiwi67 wrote:I'm looking... sadly, most veterinary resources are lists of reasons NOT to feed raw... and a customer survey just isn't going to hold water against it.

You didn't understand my intention. The survey only justifies that there is NO GOOD INFORMATION regarding Raw feeding in the market place. The customer survey is the only thing that you and I can find that comes even close to documenting any risks associated with a raw feeding plan.

The truth of the matter is that the VAST majority of those who've switched to raw don't plan on going back to kibble. AND those in contact with a large Raw community KNOW the risks vets spew are based on anecdotal stories fed to them through blogs and studies supported by CPFs.

A sample size of one does not a study make, but a sample size above 1,000 SHOULD have generated some interest.

Do you think it's okay to continue inegrating raw with a little kibble? I've heard elsewhere this isn't good for their digestive track. But I've seen where otheres mix, high caliber canned food, yogurt & other various items w/ a high caliber kibble, made me wonder why not chopped raw meat as well?

The only reason I'm debating mixing the two is the vitamins & nourishment I get from my current kibble but I also want the moisture & natural health benefits of raw meat for my dogs.

Raw and kibble process through the system at different rates. I wouldn't do raw and kibble....and most certainly not in one feeding. If you want to do both you have to feed it at separate meals and I would think it would still be an issue.

Soo...im getting my puppy around the middle of january(itll be 8weeks old) and definetly want to neuter it in the summer time...i definetly want to feed it raw...but ive heard that on a raw diet the pups take a longer time to reach its full size and with kibble they go thru the growing spurts alot faster.and i would assume neutering it would also stunt the growth a little bit (maybe...im not shure)....soo i guess my question is should i feed raw to the puppy and get it neutered later on in life...maybe around 1.5-2 years old or feed it kibble and get it neutered 8-10 months old...looking forward to reading all your insights!...thnx.

Could use some feedback on if i'm doing this properly. I wanted to introduce Gauge to raw without going all in. So the plan right now is to keep him on his TOTW 2X/day but three meals a week we will replace with raw. So i've been giving him chicken quarters or the equivalent and he has been doing well on them, chews the bones. You can't really get meat with organs around here, nothing but supermarkets so I bought some beef kidneys and just gave him the whole kidney today, figured that was his organ meat for the week. So far no problems, he hasn't gotten sick. Should I be portioning the kidney out? Should I be mixing in some chicken livers? The things are just so disgusting and smell so bad I wasn't big on cutting up a kidney and trying to store it.